Did you know the federal government has over $3.5 TRILLION in pension debt? If you add in the deficits of state and local governments across the country, the total amounts to about $7 TRILLION. According to Moody’s, that’s about 40 percent of our Gross Domestic Product.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the broadest quantitative measure of a nation’s total economic activity. More specifically, GDP represents the monetary value of all goods and services produced within a nation’s geographic borders over a specified period of time.”

Read that a couple of times and your scalp will crawl – we are spending 40 percent of our income on pensions.

Think of that as you work away at your private sector job – you’re feathering somebody else’s nest, but who is feathering yours? Get ready for a hard, cold nest folks.

I don’t know what you think of Donald Trump, but his budget plan has got my attention. Especially this proposal:

An increase in employee contributions by 1 percent each year for the next six years (until they equal the government’s contribution),

An elimination of the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for current and future Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) participants and cutting the COLA by 0.5 percent for Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) participants of what the typical formula currently allows,

Basing future retirement benefits on the average of an employee’s highest five years of salary, and,

Eliminate supplemental payments to employees who retire before age 62.

Nobody in the media is talking about the pensions – why? They want us to fixate on their claim that this plan will raise taxes on the middle class. Well, ask yourself this – are you middle class? Look at your paycheck – are you making more than $10,000 a month? Because that’s the middle class these days folks, the public workers. Trump is asking them to pay more income taxes – that’s good for the rest of us who live on an average of $40,000/year.

So, Joe Montes is really running for Congress? Really? Cause his city council campaign was a joke. He dropped out without a fight, saying he’d been told, by parties he would not name, that he would just steal votes from Coolidge and Fillmer. Rolled over like a turd in a bowl, what a woos. And now he really expects us to believe he’s got the gagnas to go to Washington? I can’t imagine him doing anything but prolonging the election to November, damn the expenses cause it’s not his money.

And then there’s Jim Reed. After meeting Jim Reed during his 2014 bid for Assembly, I’m convinced he’s just after some salary or another, any salary over 100 Grand a year would be fine. Don’t forget that pension.

And then there’s Doug LaMalfa. Yeah, he’s a big cowboy hat wearing redneck, but you know what – he’s our redneck, and we love him. At least he’s really from this area, he’s really a farmer, and he’s got a huge stake to protect. I don’t always agree with him, and he’s certainly not looking out for me, but here’s the bottom line – his interests benefit me, even if only in a trickle down sense. I’d rather ride his coattails and take his leavings than head down the Road to Perdition with either of the other idiots.

I don’t know what’s going on in the local Republican party, why long time Republicans like Larry Wahl are mad at LaMalfa. Do they realize – a split vote here means the taxpayers foot for another race in November – all those offices and measures cost 10’s of thousands to put on the ballot every time, Democracy is an expensive date. Or – you know what would be really funny? While Montes and LaMalfa are chasing each other’s tails around a palm tree, Jim Reed steals their clothes and walks triumphantly to Washington.

Why am I not laughing?

Goddess, what a horrific election. I just checked in with local Repuglicken Jack Lee and he’s backing Donny Trump, speaking as though he’s been waiting for a guy like Trump to come along for-ev-er .

We have the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, and then there’s Bernie Sanders sitting in his leaky dinghy with his SEIU thugs, offering us a ride into the perfect storm. God Bless America!

I mailed my ballot in a couple of weeks ago. I voted for Cruz knowing he couldn’t win. I can’t support Sanders, he’s the unions’ bitch. The other two – well, we’ll get one of them, but not with my vote.

The interesting race was US Senator. I had to do some research – I googled, “who has the best chance of beating that fascist/racist bitch Kamala Harris?” And up popped LA Democrat Loretta Sanchez, so I voted for her. She’s a Reagan Democrat – isn’t that the same as a Republican? Not sure, but I didn’t find anything disgusting enough about her to stop me, so I dotted in the little circle next to her name.

I voted yes on E. The county makes the dumbest proclamations for their pet groups, let’s just make a proclamation not to frack. Their big argument against this measure is that fracking hasn’t been done in Butte County, that it isn’t profitable, so will never be done. That’s weak – they need to promise that it will never be allowed, simple as that. I hope this one passes. Anybody who doesn’t get it should watch “Nothing But Trouble” with Dan Akroyd and John Candy.

I finally decided to vote no on G and H. I’m sick of the supervisors spending so much $taff time into what seems to be a personal agenda for a couple of people. I wish they’d pay attention to other matters. According to the current Butte County Community Health Assessment Report, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recently declared national epidemics for both prescription opioid and heroin overdoses – noting that prescription opioids have become a pathway to street heroin use over the past decade . These declarations are especially concerning for Butte County as our age-adjusted drug induced death rate is roughly 3 times as high as for the state of California overall, ranking 56th out of 58 counties…”

I would call their ridiculous persecution of property owners a poor remake of “Reefer Madness”. Read that community health report, and send a copy to your supervisor – http://www.buttecounty.net/Portals/21/Admin/Accreditation/Public/BC_CommunityHealthImprovementPlan_2015-2017%20.pdf

There was also a state measure to punish legislators by taking away their pay, etc, but it was not clear enough what types of things the legislators would be punished for. The whole thing was too sketchy, I voted no.

I hope everybody will make the effort to vote, one way or another. I don’t care if you go out and cancel every one of my votes, I just like the Democracy Dance. I like to live in a vibrant and active community, and there’s nothing quite so communal as passing laws and electing leaders that regulate each others’ lives.